Change of Heart
by Rose Angelz
Summary: When James Potter goes to spend two weeks at the Evans', forced to pretend he's Lily's boyfriend, she begins to realize that behind his arrogant demeanor, he's not really as big headed as he seems.


  


**Change of Heart**

  


**By Rose Angelz**

  
  
**Summary:** When James Potter goes to spend two weeks at the Evans' pretending he's Lily's boyfriend, she begins to realize that behind his arrogant demeanor, he's not as big headed as he seems.   
  
**Disclaimer:** Obviously I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters, they're all the property of JK Rowling. (Although If I _did_ own them...bwahahahahaha.....)   
  
**A/N:**Hey Guys! Even though I know I should be updating my other fics, I just felt like writing a HP fic, so here I am! I hope you guys like it, and please review! Thanks!

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**Change of Heart: Chapter 1**   
_The Invite_

  
  
It was common knowledge throughout Hogwarts that Lily Evans despised James Potter. James and his four insufferable comrades, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew or as the like to be called _The Marauders_ had been the envy of the school since first year. They were a prime example of what every other student wanted to be. They were all from respectable families, and not to mention rich, popular, and of course, good looking. It was no wonder all the guys admired them and all the girls fancied them. All the girls that is, except Lily Evans. While every girl in the school fluffed their hair and batted their eyelashes as the Marauders passed them in the corridors, Lily just turned the other way. Though sometimes the irony of life plays out in cruel, unexpected ways.   
  
Count on the one guy in all of Hogwarts who had everything he ever desired, who had the seemingly perfect life, and who could have any girl he wanted, to not care for any of it. One would think that with all the girls desperate for him to notice them, as the flounced around flirtatiously, hoping he would so much as glance at them, he would be happy, but James Potter couldn't be. He only cared for one girl. Ever since he first set eyes on her six years ago on the Hogwarts Express. It's funny how fate works, isn't it? The only girl who could ever refuse James is the very same one who he fell hopelessly in love with. But sometimes you just can't help who your heart chooses... and whether he liked it or not, James loved Lily.   
  
Now Lily, of course, was another story. She despised James. She hated everything about him, from his arrogant attitude to his constantly untidy black hair. This had all started after Lily had received her Hogwarts letter, she was so immensely fascinated about this whole other world of magic, that she had done a tremendous amount of research on Hogwarts and just wizards in general. So it was only natural that as she boarded the Hogwarts Express she was bubbling with excitement. She couldn't wait until she could finally meet some other witches and wizards her own age. It just so happened that as young Miss Evans was making her way down the train to look for a seat, she happened to overhear loud agitated voices coming from a compartment she was passing. Since the door had been left slightly ajar, she could easily make out what the voices inside were saying. Although her conscious knew better, Lily just couldn't fight the impulse to peek inside.   
  
A tall, scrawny, but handsome boy with untidy black hair was standing above two quivering figures, with his wand out and pointed. Behind him were three other boys, about the same age laughing hysterically. One of the boys cowering before the wand was scrawny and had long black, greasy hair. The other was slightly more built but had sleek blonde hair.   
  
"Well, Malfoy...Snape" The boy pointing the wand said, glaring at the two trembling figures before him, "Haven't seen you two in awhile. Haven't been causing any trouble, I'm sure."   
  
"Shut up, Potter." The blonde boy snarled.   
  
"I'd watch my manners if I were you, Malfoy. _I'm_ not the wandless one, right now." He smirked as she pulled two wands out of the pockets of his robes. The three boys in the back burst into another fit of laughter.   
  
_'Who does this Potter boy think he is?'_ Lily wondered. _'Bossing everyone around on the first day!'_   
  
"What a jerk!" Lily huffed. Everyone in the compartment turned in her direction. Lily covered her mouth, realizing that she had made her last comment aloud.   
  
The cocky boy who'd been threatening the other two gave her an odd look. "What did you just say?" But he never got a response because as Lily took off towards the back of the train as far away as possible, that same moment Malfoy and Snape made a grab for their wands distracting him from any further inquiry about the strange girl.   
  
The rest of the train ride had gone peacefully and smoothly, that is until they had reached the Hogwarts castle. As the first years entered the Great Hall for the traditional sorting, Lily was thrilled when she was selected to be in Gryffindor, the house that she had decided sounded best after all her reading. However, her happiness was soon punctured when she saw the same arrogant boy from the train and his three other friends all be sorted into Gryffindor as well... It was from that point on that Lily Evans decided she hated him. Without even knowing his name or anything else about him, she loathed everything about him.   
  
Though this wasn't the case a few seats down from where Lily was seated. As Lily regarded him with contempt, James was simply entranced by her. Of course the entire school was not aware of this little crush of James's, otherwise poor Lily would have had to suffer numerous attacks from James's crazed fan girls. But as a matter of fact for the first five years at Hogwarts, James did a pretty good job of hiding the whole thing, for a while. But since the start of their sixth year James had given in, and had been relentlessly asking Lily to go out with him. One would think that after being turned down so many times, one would give up. But not James. The more Lily refused him, the harder he tried. And so it had been for the past year into the summer holidays, where our story begins...   
  
  
  
It was early morning, the time when most _normal_ people are still sound asleep in their beds, just waiting for their alarms to sound, signaling them to start their day. Though they're _not_ being woken up at five o'clock in the morning by the soft hooting of an owl, but Lily Evans wasn't exactly the definition of normal. The redhead unwillingly sat up in her bed and glanced at the familiar tawny owl perched on her windowsill. Rubbing the last bits of sleep out of her emerald green eyes, she trudged out of bed, towards the owl, which was still hooting happily.   
  
"I should have known." She muttered as she untied the scroll of parchment from its leg. After skimming through the contents of the letter, she couldn't help but give a small smile as she tossed it aside. She turned her attention back to the tawny, which was now nibbling at her arm affectionately. After letting it have a drink from her own owl's cage, she stroked it gently, and watched it fly off into the sunrise.   
  
Seeing as she was already awake and there was no point in even bothering to try to fall back asleep, she glanced over at her eagle owl, which was sitting quietly on its perch, waiting eagerly to be fed. After tipping some food into the cage, she sat down next to it, and watched it quickly devour its meal.   
  
"He's just not going to give up, is he, Hedda?" she asked the owl which had turned its attention away from its food to look at her quizzically. After a few seconds it gave a soft hoot, and resumed its interest in consuming its food once again.   
  
"Didn't think so." She sighed as she headed downstairs for breakfast.   
  
  
  
As Lily sauntered into the kitchen, expecting it to be devoid of any inhabitants, she was surprised to see her sister, Petunia animatedly speaking to her parents who were both wide-awake and listening intently. It was her mother who noticed her first. As she turned to look at her, their conversation ceased immediately.   
  
"Lily, dear, come sit." Mrs. Evans smiled, as she gestured towards the chair next to her. Lily hesitantly sat down. No one spoke for a few moments before Lily decided to break the silence.   
  
"Mum…Dad…what's going on?" she asked looking around questioningly at the faces of her parents. At first there was no reply until Petunia decided to speak.   
  
"If you must know, we're arranging Vernon's arrival, he'll be here tonight." she snapped.   
  
"Vernon who?" Lily asked, paying no attention to her sister's rudeness, which she was far to used to by now.   
  
"Vernon, my _boyfriend_." Petunia replied coldly putting an emphasis on the word. _'Oh, right, her boyfriend, how could I forget?'_ Lily thought rolling her eyes. Ever since her sister had come back from her holiday in Rome, all she spoke of was her time with some boy she'd met along the way. It had been _Vernon this and Vernon that_ for the past two weeks, since the summer holidays had begun. As if this wasn't bad enough, to Lily's horror, her parents had agreed to let Petunia have _Vernon_ spend the next two weeks with them.   
  
"Oh right, him." Lily muttered as she turned away from her fuming sister. "Does he really have to come?"   
  
"Oh shut up! You're just jealous!" Petunia said glaring at her sister.   
  
"Of what, exactly?"   
  
"Because I have a boyfriend and you don't! Although, I can't say I'm surprised. I doubt anyone at that freak school of yours would ever bother to look twice at you."   
  
"Petunia! That's enough!" their mother said scowling. But Lily took no notice of this, Petunia was always insulting her, she had been for the past six years.   
  
Petunia had always been a foul person, and she had never really got along too well with Lily. Normally, one would think that as sisters, they would have always had a special bond, but this was not at all the case. There was probably never a pair of sisters as unalike as Lily and Petunia. Petunia had thin blonde hair, while Lily's was thick and red, Lily's warm emerald green eyes rivaled her sister's cold gray ones, and while Petunia was foul and bad-tempered, Lily was sweet and gentle. Then there was of course the obvious difference. The one that gave Petunia her reason for despising her sister the way she did. Petunia couldn't stand Lily's being a witch. It never really made sense why. On that fateful day, almost six years ago, when a large barn owl had swooped through the kitchen to deliver a letter to an unsuspecting muggle family, Lily was stunned, but excited all the same, as were her parents. Yet, Petunia was the only one resented her sister for this, and when Mr. And Mrs. Evans had taken no notice, Petunia only despised Lily more.   
  
"By the way," Petunia continued, glaring at her sister "While Vernon is here, I would appreciate it if you tried to keep your _abnormality_ a secret. I haven't explained to him about my being related to a _freak_, like yourself, and I can only imagine his reaction."   
  
_'Oh, great, just what I need, another prat like Petunia to ruin my summer'_ Lily thought groaning as she mother scolded Petunia for her rude remarks. _'Maybe I'll be able to talk mum out of this if I plead enough.'_   
  
"Mum, why is Petunia allowed to have someone over?" sighed Lily as Petunia stood up to leave.   
  
"Are you suggesting that you have a friend over too?" her father asked.   
  
"Well no it's just-"   
  
"That's an excellent idea!" her mother exclaimed. "Why don't you invite _your_ boyfriend for two weeks as well?"   
  
"My _what_?"   
  
"Her _what_?" Petunia stopped dead in her tracks, halfway through the door.   
  
"Mum, I don't have a boy-"   
  
"Of course you do." Her mother said cutting in. "That boy that's been writing to you since you've come back from school. You left some of his letters on your desk and I couldn't help but take a peek." She continued, despite the look of horror on her daughter's face. "He seems like such a nice boy."   
  
Lily felt as if a dead weight had just been dropped in her stomach. It was James Potter. Since the summer holidays had begun, James had been writing to Lily daily, with attempts to persuade her to go out with him. Lily, of course, had replied to the first few letters saying that she would rather date a troll and to leave her alone, but that didn't seem to have any affect whatsoever. He still continuously wrote to her day after day.   
  
"No, mum, he's not my boyfriend." Lily said blushing.   
  
"Aww…embarrassed now, are we?" Petunia sneered. "Well, I can't blame you, I'm sure any guy who would be dumb enough to like _you_ would have to be strange, even for your standards."   
  
"No, I'm not embarrassed, because he's not my boyfriend!"   
  
"Oh, right, how could I have forgotten? _You_ couldn't possible have a boyfriend." Petunia said, laughing.   
  
"Oh be quiet, Petunia, if you could have a boyfriend, I most certainly could!" Lily fumed as she stood up to glare at her sister.   
  
"Right, even those _freaks_ at your school couldn't be _that_ blind."   
  
"You know what? I think I _will_ have my "boyfriend" stay for the next two weeks!"   
  
"So he _is_ your boyfriend!" Mrs. Evans exclaimed happily. "This is wonderful!"   
  
"Wait, mum-" Lily started.   
  
"Now both my daughters will have company for the next two weeks. My, you're growing up so fast!"   
  
Lily was about to make another protest, but she stopped herself when she noticed the look of shock on her sister's bony face.   
  
"No! Mum! Y-you can't let this happen!" Petunia said, the panic evident in her voice. "You couldn't possibly allow one of Lily's _kind_ in this house while Vernon's here!"   
  
"Oh, Petunia, don't be silly." Their mother said smiling. "Now Lily, go write to that nice boy, and tell him he must come soon."   
  
"Yes mum" Lily answered as she headed to her room, smiling as Petunia continued to desperately dissuade her mother. It wasn't until Lily had reached her room and taken out a quill and parchment, that she realized what she was doing. _'I couldn't possibly have James Potter come over for two weeks. That's ridiculous! What was I thinking?'_ Lily realized as she put her quill down. _'And I'm going to have to say he's my boyfriend'_ She shuddered at the thought. _'I'm sure he would enjoy that, though. But, it's not like I have much of a choice now, and it would teach Petunia a lesson...'_   
  
Lily sighed as she picked her quill up again. _'But how should I say this?'   
  
Dear James,   
  
'No, that wouldn't work, calling him "dear" would make him much too happy.'   
  
James-   
  
My mum thinks it would be a good idea for me to invite someone over for the next two weeks, since my sister has a guest staying as well.   
  
-Lily   
  
'Yes, that's good, it would probably be best if I explain the circumstances about the whole "boyfriend" thing after he arrives.'_ Lily sighed as she rolled the parchment up, and tied it to her owl's outstretched leg. _'He is never going to let me live this down.'_   
  
"Alright, Hedda. I need to deliver this to James Potter, okay?" The owl gave a soft hoot. "Good girl." Lily said stroking her feathers as she soared off into the distance.   
  
_'I just hope I don't regret this'_


End file.
